AJC.com > Blogs > Get Schooled > Archives > 2009 > March > 05
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Teacher bonuses stay
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This will please many teachers out there: the House Education Committee approved a bill to keep the bonuses paid to teachers with national board certification.
As you may remember, Gov. Perdue wanted to eliminate the 10 percent salary increases that about 2,500 Georgia teachers receive. He said cutting the supplements would save the state about $12 million.
The education committee also passed HB 547, which would make the state pay for each student to take either the PSAT or ACT PLAN.
And the committee passed HB 555 that would require school boards to let local charter schools use empty school buildings at no cost. Some school districts charge charter schools to use these buildings or refuse to rent to them.
Permalink | Comments (21) | Post your comment |
Guaranteed admission to Georgia’s colleges
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bill filed in the Senate would guarantee admission to a Georgia public college to any student who graduated in the top 10 percent from a public or private high school.
SB 221, called Georgia’s Promise, is similar to programs in Florida and Texas.
A key question is how to determine who is in the top 10 percent. The bill would require the Board of Regents and Georgia Student Finance Commission to develop a universal formula to calculate a student’s grade point average and determine how much weight should be given to advanced courses, like AP and IB.
I was covering schools in Florida when the state adopted the Talented 20, which guarantees admission to the top 20 percent of a graduation high school class. That program has not been nearly as controversial as the program in Texas, which focuses on the top 10 percent.
Both states adopted these programs in the 1990s to replace affirmative action as an admissions factor. Some say colleges have been less diverse, while others say the opposite.
Critics say these programs take admissions decisions away from state universities and hurt promising students who aren’t in the top of their graduating classes.
About 80 percent of the students offered admission to University of Texas for this year’s fall freshman class got in because they graduated in the 10 percent. A bill filed in the Texas legislature aims to weaken the decade-old law.
What do you think of Georiga’s bill?
UPDATE: Last week we blogged about HB 281 which would allow students who take at least three online courses from a virtual school to participate in a public school’s extra-curricular activities. (Originally the bill said students needed to take just one online course.) People clearly saw the bill as a way for homeschoolers to join a school’s clubs and sports teams.
Rep. Len Walker withdrew the bill Wednesday after a House education subcommittee added an amendment that required the students attend a virtual charter school approved by the state. That change would have made homeschoolers ineligible under the bill.
